I need advice on buying some things.

[PachalT]

Hello to anyone who's reading this.

I am new to lock picking and quickly found that I enjoy disassembling locks and putting them back together almost as much, if not more than figuring out how to pick them. I found this out after buying sparrows reload kit for my prgressive locks, repinning them was immensely satisfying. The kit came with two small pinning mats which so far has been working well. But that leads me to my question.

I am buying something from sparrows soon but it is only $5 and I have this weird thing about not wanting to pay shipping on something so cheap. So as a professional impulse buyer I believe that adding something else to the bill will make it worth it. I pretty much have everything I could possibley need for now, A good set of picks, the small pinning mats to disassemble locks and reassemble them, and practice locks that I can repin to my hearts content. So other than the one small thing from sparrows, I could only find two things that really interest me.

The set of three SSDevs .015 hooks, I'm curious to see how much of a difference it is from my picks that are .025 and they might come in handy one day when I become good enough to tackle tougher locks with smaller keyways.

Or the Sparrows pinning mat. A larger mat couldn't hurt, especially since I am still getting the hang of not droping pins when I am working on locks.

Sparrows does have a set of plug followers that caught my eye but I have some metal tubes that have been working fine so I don't see them being neccessary.

So if anyone can share there opinion on what they think I would benefit most from I would love to hear your advice.

[billdeserthills]

Pin tumbler tweezer for those top pins

[PachalT]

I do have some of those. The repinning kit came with some. I still forget to place the tweezers on top of the pin as I slide the follower back to remove the pins as well as I haven't mastered placing the pins back in and sliding the follower forward. Little metal bits fly everywhere. I am definitely better than when I had started though.

[greengrowlocks]

Maybe try some of their basic hooks in .020". I find picks in thickness's between .018"-.022" to be the most useful and the perfect size for most locks. If your only using .025" there should be a noticeable difference going down to .020". The .015" can be good too depending on what your picking, but you will have to limit your pick pressure when using them. The .015" picks I have very seldom get used, and in most cases where I might use them I prefer a .018"-.022" pick that is slimmer in terms of its height.

GGL

[PachalT]

Maybe try some of their basic hooks in .020". I find picks in thickness's between .018"-.022" to be the most useful and the perfect size for most locks. If your only using .025" there should be a noticeable difference going down to .020". The .015" can be good too depending on what your picking, but you will have to limit your pick pressure when using them. The .015" picks I have very seldom get used, and in most cases where I might use them I prefer a .018"-.022" pick that is slimmer in terms of its height.

GGL

Thank you for your reply.

Sorry for my ignorance but does such a small change in dimension (ie .025 to .020) really make a noticeable difference? To be honest the only reason I thought about the SSDevs is because I was having trouble with my Sparrows Picks and their Schlage key way practice locks after repinning them to 6 keys with kind of intense bitting. I have been getting better with the picks I have which is why I am leaning more toward the pinning mat. I have gotten so many abandoned locks from my local lock smith and, even though most of them are Master Padlocks, I have received I few interesting ones that have been real fun to pick, take apart, repin, and then pick again.

But I am curious about how thickness effects picking. I have watched a few videos about how much better a thinner pick works but they are picking, what I consider to be, "exotic locks". I am not there yet. I haven't even attempted locks from other countries

[AngryHatter]

For me it's not width/thickness but length.
I have some "regular" length picks and a few shorter more Euro style.

Again to me, it is the wrench that counts more as far as thickness is concerned.

[greengrowlocks]

You would notice the difference between .025" and .020". The extra space you gain will give some more mobility allowing for better pick placement and aid you in picking the Schlage keyways you mentioned. The Schlage locks can definitely be picked with a .025", but for me personally I would grab a pick in .018" or .020" because it's easier to reach the pins in the back of the lock.